Remember when the media was all aflutter about Republican obstructionists, creating gridlock in Washington, when Barack Obama was president? Have you heard the media raise the specter of that now? It’s a rhetorical question.
What we hear from the media now is things like Democrats trying to stop Donald Trump on (fill in the blank). Democrats push back at Trump’s (fill in the blank.)
They can’t hide their bias any longer. They’re a joke, just like the anarchists in the streets.
The Dept of Labor released their report on Union Membership last week. Not surprisingly, the AP had a cow and came way far from reporting what the report means and what the report shows.
The only national number the AP used was comparing Wisconsin’s union membership, 8 percent, to be below the national average of 10.7 percent. There’s not a word about the serious overall national decline in union membership. Let alone the performance during the last eight years of the Obama administration. Those are facts the AP, whose journalists are mostly if not entirely members of the News Media Guild, doesn’t like. So it didn’t report them.
The AP then blamed right to work legislation as the reason for that shortfall without offering any “proof” that right to work legislation caused any part of Wisconsin’s union membership decline in 2016. Overall, Wisconsin’s union membership dropped by only 4,000 in 2016 to 219,000.
The situation for organized labor goes way beyond Wisconsin. Florida dropped 90,000 members since 2015, representing 5.6 percent of workers compared to 6.8 percent the previous year.
And this is what the labor union membership looks like after eight years of the Obama administration.
What else happened last week? The XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline projects got the go-ahead from President Trump. All union jobs. And, Labor Union leaders met with President Trump in The White House to talk jobs. Reminds me of a question often raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. What have you got to lose?
Links: Union Membership (Annual) News Release | AP Ignores Falling Obama-Era U.S. Union Membership, Takes Aim at Wisconsin
Where do liberal talk show hosts go when they have no ratings? They go to Russian media RT of course. You know, part of that Russia propaganda machine that liberals and the Hillary Campaign say got Trump elected.
Rush Limbaugh wannabes like Ed Shultz and Mike Papantonio.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan has reportedly left the agency a day after President Trump signed an executive order to build a wall on the Mexican border. That he didn’t resign years ago when President Obama tied his hands behind his back in enforcing immigration law says a lot.
Four senior level management people at the State Department resigned yesterday. Described as the entire senior level of management at the State Department. Part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.
Saving President Trump the trouble.
That there exists a dishonest media, one with its own leftist tilt, isn’t even debatable. This has been highlighted in the news cycles and Daily Press Conferences since Inauguration Day last Friday.
We’ve seen MSNBC’s personality Chris Matthews refer to Trump’s inauguration speech as “Hitlerian.” We’ve seen CNN make fake news reports and get called out on it by no less than President Trump himself.
Yet there has been no media cacophony suggesting that Jim Acosta, CNN and Chris Matthews and MSNBC be banned from future access and interviews, like Barack Obama did after Barbara West of Orlando’s WFTV asked VP Candidate Joe Biden what Americans would think about Marxist / Socialist tendencies of then candidate Barack Obama. Some were calling for her to be fired, for asking questions that the mainstream media would dare not ask. And never did. One could argue that, had candidate Obama been vetted by the press, Hillary Clinton would have beaten Obama in the 2008 primary.
Glad you asked. Actually, a FB buddy, John Ingraham Berry said, and asked:
Burdensome on those families and individuals who have very little… have a little trouble grasping and seeing the fairness of this concept.
It’s really very easy, especially on the poor. Once you understand what’s in the bill, it’s like a ‘slap yourself in the head’ brilliant concept. For lack of any media excitement or mediocre coverage of the FairTax, getting people to learn what’s in the bill, as opposed to what the establishment says about it, which is pure demagoguery, is the biggest challenge.
Under every circumstance EXCEPT the FairTax, a consumption tax is regressive. By percentage of income, it hurts the poor the worst. The FairTax doesn’t do that. It is progressive in a way that benefits the poor the most, as you will see below.
Here’s the short version.
1.) Everything everyone (poor included) buys today is paying all the income and corporate tax, capital gains, gift, estate, alternative minimum, SS and Unemployment tax, and self-employment tax of everyone involved in bringing that item to market, from raw materials, to manufacturing, to transportation, and all the costs of a wholesaler and retailer to bring the item to you, the final consumer. Call that the “embedded” tax. Everyone pays it, it’s in the cost of the item. It just isn’t itemized on your receipt. It’s hidden in that way, but it is there. Under the FairTax, the amount of federal tax you pay will be printed on your receipt. Totally transparent.
Now imagine what the same item would cost if there were no embedded taxes, if that product could be made with none of the above taxes. After over $22 million of research, the percentage amounts to about 22 % less.
The research included, of course, finding out what people buy at all income levels. No small task. That done, for the FairTax to be ‘revenue neutral,’ the FairTax percentage comes in at 23%.
That doesn’t mean an item automatically costs 23% more under the FairTax than it does today. When you remove the 22% embedded tax, and replace it with a 23% sales tax, you see a 1% increase in price on a widget. This is an average, not an absolute. One method is swapped with the other, having a negligible effect on cost to consumer.
2.) Here’s what the critics don’t tell you, or don’t know about. There is NO TAX on used items, including a car, motorcycle, boat, or house sold that was not bought by the ORIGINAL owner. The sales tax is ONLY for NEW items purchased for the FIRST TIME. Fair thing is, this applies the same to everyone, at all income levels. Including tourists, diplomats and other non-citizens.
3.) Because it is a consumption tax, assessed to new items sold, everyone pays it. The tax base instantly expands to 320,000,000 people instead of only legal citizens who have a job. What we have now is an income tax. No income = no tax revenue. And a tax base less than half of that. And because of that dynamic, the FairTax is a more stable revenue source. Fair thing is, this applies the same to everyone, at all income levels. Including foreign tourists, diplomats and other non-citizens, legal or illegal. And that tax never exceeds 23%.
4.) This is the part that makes this consumption tax progressive, instead of regressive. The Prebate. Designed to be the same, aka fair. Everyone gets this prebate based on the number of people in the household. And the prebate is for legal U.S. citizens only.
Now a new term to learn, effective tax rate. Based on the consumer spending research mentioned above, the amount of the prebate is figured to offset the sales taxes that would be paid for the basic necessities that everyone buys up to the poverty level as determined by HHS. It is paid to the household every month. Taking the prebate into account, lower income people pay less than 23%. In fact, the prebate at the lowest income levels make the effective tax rate a negative number. An income stream.
5.) Absent all the embedded taxes, at the federal level, the term ‘take home pay’ becomes obsolete. Your gross pay is also your net pay. THAT makes a big difference for all people, especially the poor. Currently, for every job, and many people do have 2 or more jobs, they pay those embedded taxes. Can’t get more regressive than that. Imagine the effect when they are not taxed every time they get another job. Purchasing power goes up for everyone, only greater for the poor. The rich pay the maximum 23%. But since “the rich” also buy more, they pay more taxes in dollars, obviously, than the poor, when they buy their yachts, cars, planes and other high-end toys. That’s how it affects families of all income levels, on the personal level.
6.) No more income taxes to file. And because of that, there is no compliance cost incurred to pay them. No tax preparers, accountants, or tax lawyers to pay. In total, a saving of over $400 billion. And, the IRS is effectively gone.
7.) On the national, macro level, absent the income tax, the $10-15 trillion that U.S. companies have sheltered overseas will come back to be invested here, since there will not be a tax obligation to shelter it from. Then, with the absence of an income tax, foreign business will come here and open up shop. The U.S. will become a global magnet for businesses. The U.S. will become the “offshore tax haven.” There will be a job for anyone who wants to work. Maybe more jobs than people. And competition between employers to get employees will do what? Increase wages. We will experience real economic growth on a personal and national level. And none of it government subsidized, adding to the national debt.
How the politicians spend that is another matter. The FairTax is only to be the replacement source for funding the government. It has nothing to do with how that money is spent or where it is allocated.
You can read the text of the bill HERE. It’s not 75,000 pages like the current IRS code. H.R. 25 is a whopping 132 pages long. And more information is available at the link at the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
So the best the intelligence community can come up with is that Russia’s media, like RT, tried to influence the American people against Hillary, to try to influence voters to pick her opponent.
And, didn’t we just experience an onslaught of American media aligned against one candidate, for another? Like, against Trump and for Hillary? Thought so.
Am thinking, wasn’t the Obama administration’s overt attempt to unseat Netanyahu in his re-election campaign much worse?
Bottom line, sore losers in search of an excuse for losing. Twice. Refusing to accept responsibility is a sign of immaturity.
Industries come and go. When it comes to the print news media, like your hometown newspaper, it seems the industry is under pressure to stay in business. Circulation has dropped, their labor force (including the news department) has thinned, some of their processes have been outsourced, all in efforts to stay in business.
Not too long ago, the paper width of the PNJ (Pensacola News Journal) was reduced by maybe 20-25%. For national content, they added a USA Today section, but you will see it has the same news article as in another section, in the same issue. Now I’m noticing that they are publishing articles that they published a couple of days earlier. The same article, nothing new, but on a different page. Filling space once used by advertisers with duplicate news articles. On the marketing side, they offer fewer options.
The “print news media” industry is fading, and failing. Taking a big hit from online media and what has become known as the “new” media, the newspaper industry seems to be on its last leg for a number of reasons.
One brought on themselves through more advocating and/or shaping opinions than simply reporting the who, what, when, and where of what happened, contributing to intellectually curious consumers migrating to online news sources. The Internet, per se, is not responsible for the demise of traditional newspapers, there are just as many fake news sites out there too, but the mere presence and availability of it has changed the way we get up in the morning and get our news. Like the long-gone Catalog Showroom industry, newspapers today are dealing with a consumer shift that just may be putting them irrelevant and, out of business.
Starting with this part of President Obama’s legacy . . .
Beginning in 2017, Republicans will hold 33 governorships and fully control legislatures in 25 states, as well as the Congress and presidency. During Obama’s two terms in office, the party lost more than 1,000 seats at the state and national level.
“I love President Obama, but he and his administration allowed for the deterioration, the terrible deterioration, of the state parties over the last eight years,” said Mark Brewer, who led the Michigan Democratic Party for 18 years.
The job at hand now is to pick a new leader for the Democratic National Committee. You will remember that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz stepped down after being caught tipping the scale in favor of Hillary over Bernie, and Donna (CNN debate cheat) Brazile took over temporarily, until a permanent Chair could be found.
You have to look for news about the party because their media isn’t talking about it. Too busy hyping ‘the resistance’ to President-elect Trump.
Most people know that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) wants the to be DNC Chair. But most people don’t know that he isn’t the only one “running” for the position to lead the Democrat Party. There are six. Besides Ellison, former Vermont governor and DNC chair Howard Dean, South Carolina Democratic Party chair Jaime Harrison have formally declared their candidacies; NARAL Pro-Choice America chair Ilyse Hogue is interested, as is New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Also missing in the media is the feeling among democrats that the candidates should debate, in public, for the position. But this would be counterproductive to the feeling among establishment democrats that Ellison is the one. Like Hillary Clinton was supposed to be ‘the one.’
Aside from there being nothing going on in the media about a successor for Donna Brazile, there’s really nothing going on from those six wannabes over what President Obama did to Israel at the United Nations. They’re not saying, and the media is not asking. The leaderless party seems to be emulating Hillary Clinton’s campaign, avoid press conference and stay home.
Links: The Candidates for DNC Chair Should Debate Each Other in Public | Leading DNC Candidates Duck Debate Over Obama’s Handling Of UN Israel Resolution | Out of Power, State Dems Frustrated With National Committee
The way the media is reacting to Pres-elect Trump’s reaction of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goal for the coming year is something that could qualify for the M.R.I.O.T.D. award. Putin said he wants to make it a chief military objective to strengthen Russia’s nuclear capabilities.
So when Trump Tweets . . .
The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
. . . he is basically stating his peace through strength agenda and rebuilding of the military that he’s been talking about for the last year and a half.
The media doesn’t know how to deal with someone who pretty much is his own media and speaks directly to the people, by-passing them and their bias. This has the media and jumping up and down with accusing Trump of causing “a sharp shift in U.S. national security policy. President Barack Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation a centerpiece of his agenda.” There’s the award-winning statement. Most ridiculous because it was President Obama who sanctioned real nuclear proliferation. Not only that, but for the world’s biggest State sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Not to mention the nutjob in North Korea who is already threatening to lob a nuke our way.
To the media, nuclear nonproliferation doesn’t mean not spawning nuclear capabilities to other countries. To them, and Obama, it means what we should let our own capabilities rot on the vine. There’s no outrage for the handing nuclear capabilities to Iran, with Russia’s support by the way. There’s no outrage at Putin’s goal to strengthen their nuclear capabilities, including developing a way to get past defensive shields.
What Trump did was call out Putin in terms of, you really don’t want to go there. But if you do, we’ll beat you just like the last time. The last time is when President Reagan hastened the end of the Soviet Union when they couldn’t keep up with the U.S. nuclear and defense posture. It drove them to bankruptcy. Russia’s economy is not in any shape to compete with what we could do if we wanted to. It is all predicated on nuclear powers coming to their senses, “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
The political Left simply can not deal with the notion of peace through strength. The reason to have the best is so we won’t have to use them. The strength is the deterrence. But in their world, they believe that the world would be safer if we were weaker. The media still doesn’t understand why Trump won.
Link: Trump: US must ‘greatly strengthen’ nuclear capability | Putin: Russia’s Nukes Can Pierce Any Defense Missile Defense System
The hoopla surrounding North Carolina’s HB2 (House Bill 2) legislation couldn’t be more confusing to decipher. And as usual, that is by design.
When you hear the way the mainstream media and opponents describe it, you would think that people are being denied ‘rights.’
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature on Wednesday rejected a bid to repeal a state law restricting bathroom access for transgender people, which has drawn months of protests and boycotts by opponents decrying the measure as discriminatory.
The bill basically says that you use the bathroom based on what is between your legs, not what is between your ears. There are no 
“rights” of transgender people (less than 1% of society) to interfere with the rights of “normal” people to expect both privacy and security when using facilities like bathrooms, locker rooms, and common showers. When they were born, they had the same rights as everyone else. And still do.
What we have is a political movement to lower the bar of what is moral and right. There is nothing added for transgender or gender-confused people for them to deal with that they didn’t have 10, 50 or 100 years ago. And there’s no reason to change bathrooms for, or on, the 99% of the rest of society.
To that .3 % of society trying to bully the rest, get therapy or deal with it. And remember, diversity includes everyone.
Link: North Carolina rebuffs transgender bathroom law repeal
Since this road rage shooting Saturday night, the reporting about what or who to look for has been sketchy. First, we were told to be on the lookout for a black Chevrolet. There was no description of a human. The impression being left that either the car did the shooting or the shooter shot from inside the car and couldn’t be identified.
Well, this tweet was flashed on the TV screen tonight for a split second, in ABC’s evening news broadcast at the end of the 1 1/2 minute story. I went online to see the video to see what it was that I couldn’t read. The video was there, but the tweet was not.
A scan of the Little Rock Police department’s Twitter feed produced the tweet that was flashed on the broadcast, and omitted from the archive copy. The reporter also omitted information about who the police are looking for. Here’s the subject tweet. Can you tell the detail that was omitted?
We need your help locating an older black Chevrolet Impala being driven by a tall B/M. The incident occurred at Warren & Mablevale Cutoff.
— Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) December 18, 2016
There is a reward, recently increased to $40,000.
$20,000 reward for the arrest & conviction of the individual(s) involved in this homicide. pic.twitter.com/o8p6W77Hi3
— Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) December 18, 2016
What could possibly be the reason to omit the fact that a Black male was suspected of being the shooter?
Dishonest media.
Link: 911 Call in Road-Rage Case: ‘This Little Kid’s Been Shot’
